


Tales of Dead Men

by TinCanTelephone



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Blood, Blood and Violence, F/M, High Fantasy AU, Necromancy, Slow Burn, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:54:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21543349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/TinCanTelephone
Summary: In our world dead men tell no tales… but in Jyn's world, sometimes they do.The line between alive and dead is a spectrum. Jyn prefers to operate in the middle. Cassian seems to exist outside of it.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Comments: 20
Kudos: 61





	1. Prologue: The Herbalist

**Author's Note:**

> It's finally here!! My high fantasy au– I started it over a year ago on tumblr but I am officially working on it again and WILL FINISH IT (don't hold me to a timeline tho lol) 
> 
> Very loosely inspired by [this post](https://thyrell.tumblr.com/post/169792755096/a-necromancer-is-just-a-really-late-healer)
> 
>   
> **Content warning for descriptions of blood

Jyn Erso was never good at being on time. Particularly when it came to saving people. For instance, she was too late to save her parents– by the time her powers were fully realized their bodies had long-since disintegrated, and as her master loved to tell her, 

“The laws of physics still apply. No one can make something from nothing.”

That was before she split with him, just before her apprenticeship was technically complete. They had… creative differences. 

She didn’t go far, just a few villages over, and set up an herbalist’s shop. There wasn’t much use for a necromancer in peacetime and it wouldn’t do to advertise her services to any half-wit who wanted to have sex with their dead lover. 

She did have a back door though, and performed the occasional spell for the local constable. Always at night, and always temporary. And she kept such a low profile otherwise no one in the town gave a second thought to the fact that there hadn’t been a single unsolved murder in the five years since she’d been there. 

The only permanent spell she performed after leaving Saw was actually because of him. She heard through the grapevine that he’d tortured and killed a passing merchant, claiming he’d stolen from him. Fed up with his paranoia and brutality, she stole back to his manor house grounds that night and dragged the body outside the magical perimeters he’d placed, where she brought the young man back to life. 

For lack of any other ideas, she took him back to her village and introduced him as her new assistant. She explained he was simple due to recent head trauma, and no one thought twice about his slow, stuttering speech or flat affect. 

All in all, Jyn was pretty satisfied with the result. The undead were never _perfectly_ undead, but Bodhi was kind and loyal and a good worker. 

And he never told her secret.

* * *

Jyn discovered Bodhi’s strangest quirk the day she met _him_. 

The man– a soldier, by his dress and bearing– walked calmly into her shop a little over a year after she reanimated Bodhi, holding a rag to one shoulder and dripping blood all over the floor. 

He smiled and nodded politely to her and Bodhi as she glared at the stains forming on her hardwood. Bodhi stared back at him for a second, eyes tracking the streams of blood flowing from the saturated cloth, before turning slowly to the side and retching into an empty crate. Nothing came out, of course, but it was strange to see one of the undead perform a function so… human. 

Jyn would have liked to appreciate the irony, but then the man spoke. “I’m looking for a healer.”

“I’m an herbalist,” she snapped. “The doctor is three doors down.”

“But you have skills,” he said, glancing around them at he shelves lining every wall of the shop. “That could heal me.”

“The herbs do the healing,” she said. “Not me.”

He stepped forward anyway, leaving a trail of red droplets across the floor. Jyn wondered how he hadn’t passed out. Then as he grew closer, she felt it. The space around him grew sharp, like a strong spice she felt in her veins as well as on her tongue, the taste of magic.

Something was not right. 

The hairs on her arm stood up and the man took the cloth from his shoulder. It fell to the floor with a sticky _splat_ and blood poured freely from the long wound that stretched across his collarbone from his neck to his bicep. 

“I’m looking,” he said, “For a particular type of healing.”

Jyn licked her lips, trying to get a taste of the air. What type of spell was he under? If he was undead, it was a better spell than she’d ever seen before. His movements were smooth and his speech clear. And it wouldn’t explain the blood. 

She said, “You should’ve come through the back.”

Shirtless, he sat on the table that usually held corpses while she tried to stitch up his wound. By the time she finished, her hands were slick and her sleeves were stained, but the blood slowed and stopped after she finished and bound it tightly with gauze. 

She washed her hands and sent Bodhi to the well for more water. She’d need more to clean up the mess the soldier had made in her store. The man watched as the water in the basin turned pink and murky. Neither of them had commented yet on the amount he’d lost in the past hour alone, surely enough to make him pale and nauseous.

Jyn’s tongue flicked out again, but even standing close to him, the taste was unfamiliar and sour. 

“I’ve been cursed,” he said. 

She nodded. 

“So I cannot die.”

That explained some things.

“It was a necromancer who did it,” he said. “Against my will.”

She regarded him carefully. “I’ve never heard of that type of spell,” she said. “How do you know it was a necromancer?”

He didn’t answer her. “There’s a war going on.”

She narrowed her eyes. "No, there isn’t. Not since the Dark Father disappeared.”

“Not from the Western Reaches.”

Jyn froze, her blood suddenly running cold. “Is that where you came from?”

“To put it simply.”

Something else occurred to her. “How did you know about my… skills?” Most soldiers couldn’t tell a household witch from a high priestess. 

The man leaned forward. “I was stationed behind the Dark Father’s lines. Someone is looking for you. _Jyn Erso_.” 

Her heart pounded in her ears and she forced her hands not to shake. “Why should I trust you?”

He shrugged with his good shoulder. “Ask your assistant. I think you’ll find he’s more than an unlucky merchant.”

Jyn whirled and stared at Bodhi, hovering in the doorway between the back room and the store. 

“I. Didn’t… steal. From. Saw,” he said in his slow, halting way. 

“So you’ve said.” She’s never asked for more details. Discussing the past always seemed to upset him, and the scars on his temples meant Saw messed with his brain. Jyn was never sure Bodhi even retained any real memories from before his death. 

“I was. Trying. To send. A message.”

“What message?”

“It was… for you.” 

Jyn felt clouds of angry magic gathering around her hands. “And you never thought to mention this before?”

Bodhi looked distressed, his fingers twitching around his clothes and chin hanging against his chest. “I. Don’t. Remember.” His shoulders shook and Jyn thought if his tear ducts worked, he would be crying. 

“Bodhi,” the soldier said. 

Bodhi looked up, eyes red and dry. 

“Do you remember me?"

In slow, jerky motions, Bodhi nodded. 

“How do you know him?” Jyn snapped.

Bodhi shook his head and stared at the solider. “Ca… Cass…”

The soldier nodded. “That’s right. Keep going.”

“Cass…ian.”

The soldier smiled. “Good. That’s it.” He reached down and held out his ruined jacket, so Jyn could see a patch sewn to the breast, _Captain Cassian Andor_. 

She swallowed. “Who cursed you? And who’s looking for me?”

His smile faded. “I don’t know. I think he’s an alchemist. A friend to the man who cursed me. I didn’t see his face before I escaped.” He stood and took a step towards her. “Come with me back West, Jyn Erso.” 

She raised her chin. “Why should I?”

“The war is coming, and it’s coming quickly. You can let it come to your door or choose to meet it.” He paused and glanced at her hands, where her tension still radiated in dark curls of magic from her fingertips. “Which would you prefer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Tumblr Post](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/post/177110439450/fic-nowhere-else-to-run)  
> (although I've changed a few things since then– including the title)


	2. The Old Manor

For a minute, there was silence as she stared him down, wondering if she should throw him out of her shop for saying such a thing. There had been no war in the East for as long as she’d been alive, and it was madness to cross the desert to go looking for one. Did this “soldier” understand what he was asking?

She flicked the magic away from her hands, closing her eyes to calm down. “Allow me to sleep on it,” she said. “In the meantime, get out of my shop.”

He spread his hands. “Where should I go?”

“I don’t care. Away.” She needed time to think, and the sour taste of the curse was growing stronger, distracting her.

He bowed his head and rose from the table, moving like his shoulder didn’t bother him at all, and left through the back.

Bodhi watched him go, a nervous sort of fear in his dull eyes. “What… are you going to do?” 

Jyn didn’t answer for a long moment, licking the air as traces of the soldier’s curse faded. “Pack your bags,” she said.

“So we’re… following him?”

“Maybe.” She glanced at the floor, grimacing at the bloodstains in the wood. “But first we have to make a stop.”

When Cassian returned to the shop at sunrise, Jyn was waiting for him with Bodhi, their bags packed and traveling cloaks over their shoulders. He had acquired a new jacket and his shoulder didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, but she could see the bandage peeking out from beneath his collar, and the air around him still tasted strongly of magic.

He hid his excitement well, but she didn’t miss the eagerness in his eyes when he spotted them. “So you’ll come?”

“Not so fast,” she said. “We’re going north.”

He frowned. “But the war–”

“Can wait a few more days,” she said. “I need more information first.”

He shook his head. “There’s no time for this.”

She shrugged, stepping off the back stoop of her shop and striding past him. “Go due west if you want, but we’re going north.”

To her annoyance, he followed them as they started walking towards the edge of the village. “What’s in the north? What information do you need?”

She walked faster, hoping he’d give up and go his own way, but she could only go so fast if Bodhi was going to keep up, and he followed them easily. She wondered if his shoulder even caused him pain at all.

He didn’t say anything, but his face was thunderous and she could almost hear him silently stewing. Finally, when they reached the edge of the village, where the road split in three directions, she decided she’d had enough.

“All right.” She rounded on him. “Here’s where you can leave. Go west yourself if it’s so Goddamn important to you, but we’re going north whether you like it or not.”

He glared and set his feet. “I thought you understood how important this was. We need to go west _now_ , we don’t have time to run errands–”

Jyn growled and clenched her fists to keep her magic under control. The grass around her feet withered and died and Bodhi edged backwards. But this soldier was either remarkably brave or remarkably stupid and refused to back down.

“Do you realize what you’re saying?” she hissed. “I have a business to run, I have a life. Crossing the Middle Reaches these days is practically a death sentence, and you want me to just come with you at the drop of a hat?”

“I can protect–”

“You can barely protect yourself.” She stared pointedly at his shoulder. Cursed or not, it had to be effecting him somehow.

He seethed at her words, but didn’t press the point. “What’s so importantin the north?” he said. “You’ve left your shop as if you trust me, but you won’t go west.”

“I trust you,” Jyn said, although it was only half-true. “I just need more information.”

“What kind of information?” he said again, and Jyn could tell he wasn’t about to back down this time.

“The message Bodhi had for me,” she said. “If he doesn’t remember, there’s only one other person who would know.”

“And who’s that?”

“The man who killed him.”

* * *

In his prime, Saw Guerrera was one of the the most feared necromancers in the east, and one of the most respected commanders against the forces of the Dark Father in his last assault. But he’d never accepted the end of the war, and maintained a small militia for years after the rest of the local landowners withdrew their support. By the time Jyn was taken in as an apprentice it had dwindled to barely ten members, and as Saw poured all his resources into it, his estate was falling into disrepair.

It was known as Jedha, and you could see it from the bottom of the hill on which it sat, black spires towering into the sky. But before that, you’d feel the boundary of magic at the perimeter of the grounds. It would start as a tingle in the back of your throat, which would move into your chest the farther you walked uninvited. If you were fool enough to keep going, it would stop your heart and kill you where you stood.

Jyn had gone to a lot of trouble sneaking past it when she revived Bodhi. It had tasted like wood and dead leaves and took nearly all of her skill to break undetected. She held up a hand as they approached Jedha’s perimeter– if not for Bodhi or Cassian, she’d need to break through the barrier again for her own sake.

They continued slowly, Jyn’s tongue flicking out every few steps to taste the air, waiting for the itch in the back of her throat. But when they reached the base of the hill and she hadn’t felt anything, she looked up and realized the spires were gone, like there was nothing atop the hill but an open field.

Heart pounding, she doubled her pace and surged up the path, but the smell hit her before she reached the crest. And not the smell of magic, the smell of smoke. Cassian caught up with her quickly, she heard him mutter a curse under his breath as they stared at the scene before them.

The smell was coming from what was left of the manor, collapsed in on itself, one tower still burning. But more horrifying, what brought them up short at the top of the hill, were the bodies. There must’ve been dozens of them, lying still on the grass, swords next to their hands and eyes frozen open, staring at the sky.

Cassian moved first, striding past her and picking up the nearest sword, then swinging it down to cut off its unfortunate owner’s head. “It’s just as I told you,” he said, moving on to the next body. “The Dark Father’s army is coming. For you and everyone else in the East.”

Jyn seethed, watching him from the edge of the trees. “Cutting off their heads won’t do anything, you know. Any novice can reanimate a head by itself.”

“Well a head alone is much less useful,” he retorted. “What else are we supposed to do?”

“Burn the body,” Jyn said. “Thoroughly. But I wouldn’t bother with these.” She heard Bodhi’s shuffling steps behind her and started picking her way between the corpses towards what was left of the house. “They’ve already been reanimated once before. No one wants another necromancer’s sloppy seconds.”

Now that she was closer, she could smell the residual magic on them. Pungent and unpleasantly warm. Like an outhouse someone used right before you. Saw had probably released them all at once with a spell, but not before they’d done some damage. The way his own forces had been dwindling, he would’ve had little protection.

Cassian was still hacking away at corpses behind her, but she closed her eyes and focused on the fire in the house, drawing away its life force until it sputtered out. Unbidden, guilt started to rise in her chest. What if she hadn’t left? What if she’d been here to help?

She told herself it was the smoke lingering in the air that made her eyes feel hot as she began digging through the wreckage. Saw was dead– he had to be, or else he would’ve put out the fire himself. At one time, the idea would’ve made her happy. Saw was a hard, warlike man unsuited for peacetime. He’d been cruel in his paranoia and a hard master, but he took her in when no one else would, and taught her everything she knew.

Bodhi bent over and began to help, but she waved him away. “You don’t have to.” It didn’t seem right for him to search for the man who tortured and killed him.

But he shook his head. “I might… might remember… if I see him.”

Jyn pursed her lips, but let him continue.

They worked until the sun started to go down, tearing apart the wreckage for Saw’s body. Cassian joined them eventually, wearing a new belt and shoes, sword smeared with blood from the corpses. He and Jyn were the ones that found the old necromancer in the end, after hours of picking away at a collapsed roof.

Jyn bit her lip at the condition of the body. A rafter had fallen on his chest, and she could tell from where she stood that most of his ribs were caved in. It should’t effect the spell, but it wasn’t ideal if she wanted him to speak.

Cassian stared between them. “What now?”

She tried not to roll her eyes, and didn’t answer him as she clambered over the debris and knelt by the body. Her hands on Saw’s cold chest and forehead, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her own magic always tasted sweet in the back of her mouth, and she waited for the feeling to spread into her chest before channeling it into the body. If they had come all this way, the spell had to be good.

She waited until Saw’s body was filled with her magic, when she could feel it filling all of his fingers and toes. Then with a final surge, she watched his eyes blink open, wide and reflecting the pale moonlight above them.

His mouth opened to speak, but all that came out was a hoarse wheeze.

“Saw,” she said. “It’s me, Jyn.”

He tried again, and still no sound came out, but she saw his lips form her name, then the words, _What have you done?_

“I’m sorry,” she said, and unpleasant tightness in her ribs. “I just need to know–”

_Undo it, Girl!_ he mouthed. _Did I teach you nothing?_

The tightness grew worse, and she felt like she was choking. This was a shameful thing to do– no way to repay the man who had more than raised her. This was a foolish idea. They should’ve left as soon she knew he was dead.

Then something shifted above her and she looked up. Bodhi had appeared next to Cassian, standing above her on what was left of the roof, silhouetted against the moon.

She squared her shoulders and hardened herself. Saw was far from a good man. Why should he receive an honorable death? “Why did you kill him?” she said. “What did he know?”

Saw thrashed his head and mouthed something she didn’t understand.

“Tell me,” Jyn said. “What was the message?”

But he only struggled more violently, mouthing nonsense until she caught his head in one hand, fingers pressed to his temples.

“Speak clearly,” she commanded. “And I’ll release you.”

He’d stopped moving, but smiled with an ugly grin. _And what good is your word? You’re my apprentice, after all_.

Jyn growled and forced more magic into his head, although she could feel it would make no difference. His mind was rotten and twisted, like it had been for years before his death.

Saw only opened his mouth and laughed– an ugly, rasping sound– before drawing in a horrible, liquid breath. “It’s coming.”

“Is that it?” she said. “Is that the message?” That couldn’t be it– that did’t tell her anything!

He drew in another terrible breath. “ _It’s coming_.”

For a second, his voice was so like the one she knew it startled her, and her hand left his head.

He started to laugh again, in wild hysterics, blood and saliva flying from his mouth and eyes rolling in their sockets.

Abruptly, she caught his head again and drained all the magic from him, so he went as limp as any of the corpses in the field and they were plunged into silence.

Neither Bodhi nor Cassian spoke as she rejoined them on the roof, although they stepped back in alarm as she flicked her wrist and Saw’s body became engulfed in flames, burning so hot it was almost blue.

She almost ran back to the edge of the forest, tripping over bodies and severed heads. Tears leaked out of her eyes and her hands trembled. The trees closest to her began to shudder, shedding their leaves and creaking in the wind.

In the corner of her vision, she saw Cassian look up at the leaves curling before his eyes and open his mouth as if to speak, but she stomped her foot and let out a scream, redirecting all her magic to what was left of the manor.

It burst into flames so hot the nearest corpses caught fire, and Cassian flinched as the wave of heat smacked their faces.

Vaguely, she heard him and Bodhi shuffle further backwards into the protection of the trees, but she stayed where she was, willing the fire to burn until she could no longer stand.

* * *

Jyn woke up to someone shaking her.

_Rude_ , she thought. Not to mention dangerous. If she weren’t so tired, whoever it was would have been dead before they touched her. But she knew who it was this time– that irritatingly familiar sour magic wafting over her.

Her eyes blinked open, squinting in the dewy light of the early morning.

Cassian sat back on his heels. “Thank God,” he said. “You’re not dead.”

“What do you care?” She climbed to her feet, brushing the dirt and soot from her tunic.

He frowned. “I just wanted to make sure, after last night–”

“I’m fine,” she said. “I got what I needed.”

“Which is…?”

“This is above my pay grade. Bodhi and I are going home.” She started looking around for her assistant.

“You’re _what_?” Cassian stepped in front of her. “After all that? After what happened to your former master?”

“Saw’s a crazy old man,” she said. “He probably had it coming.” She tried to brush past him.

He reached out and gripped her bicep, and for a second she wondered if he had a death wish, until she remembered the curse and that she probably couldn’t kill him if she tried. 

“I was there,” he said. “You can’t pretend that was nothing. Saw said it himself, _It’s coming_. That’s the Dark Father and his army. These soldiers are just the beginning.”

Jyn scoffed. “If the Dark Father thinks he can get a full army across the desert, he’s either stupid or delusional or both. I’m not risking my skin to go play the hero.”

Cassian didn’t let go. “Think about it, Jyn. Why did the soldiers come _here_ , of all places? Why attack a crazy old necromancer?”

Jyn stopped, lips pressed together.

“It’s because he knew something. Because he was dangerous.”

Her heart pounded in her chest, and she wanted so badly to deny it, but Cassian seemed to know just how to make her listen.

“Imagine if those soldiers had attacked somewhere else. Like a town, with no militia or necromancer masquerading as a herbalist. Imagine what they could’ve done.”

A twig cracked behind her, and Jyn turned to see Bodhi shuffling towards them.

“I think…” he said in his slow, halting voice, “we should go.”

She looked back and forth between Bodhi and Cassian, heart sinking as she accepted what had to be done.

“Fine, I’ll go with you to the west,” she said. “But I’m not the savior you think I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still on tumblr as [cats-and-metersticks](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/) :D


End file.
